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Mail.ru playing hard ball with Google over Russian search?

Another Google service has again been blocked in Russia. Part of the Blogspot weblog host has been added to the country’s new state “blacklist” of sites with prohibited content, reports Vedomosti.

The blocked IP address has nobbled Chrome browser fonts and plugins and is an especially wide ruling affecting the whole service for what is likely only a handful of alleged breaches. But could Google soon find the commercial sector, as well as the state, freezing it out of Russia… ?

Right now, Mail.ru serves its own search results at home in Russia and uses Google to answer a remaining 40 percent of queries on its sites in other countries.

Citing unnamed Mail.ru sources, Izvestia says Mail.ru is now changing its mind having embarked on further globalisation using contextual advertising technology under its own steam. It is possible that Mail.ru is simply negotiating with Google.